Ridgecrest children were awed by magic Friday as magician Chris Lopez performed his comedy magic show for the library’s Summer Reading Program.

The show opened with Lopez explaining how the heart of magic is illusion and what seems to be happening is not necessarily what really happens. He then launched into an hour-long performance with a variety of magic tricks involving everything from cards to a $100 bill borrowed from an audience member. Lopez worked his magic perfectly, keeping the kids enthralled with his performance, while his entertaining commentary led everyone through each trick.

Lopez inserts comedy throughout his shows. During a number of sketches something “unexpected” would happen and he would have an exaggerated reaction of surprise as he questioned what had gone wrong. Lopez said finds the comedy lightens the mood and adds to the audience’s enjoyment of the show. He said it adds to the performance when people are comfortable and relaxed.

“I want them to feel like they’re just hanging out,” Lopez said.

The show included lots of audience participation with kids being picked from the audience for many of the tricks. There were also a couple instances where he had everyone help — having the whole audience act as water and sunlight to help a “seed” grow into an orange.

As a close to the show, Lopez taught one trick to the audience by teaching them how to turn a silk scarf into an egg. As he finished explaining the trick, Lopez brought it back around to how it was all about illusion and making it look like one thing was happening while something else had really happened. He then demonstrated this by performing one more trick, showing how something on-stage throughout the lesson was not how it had appeared.

Lopez has been practicing magic since he was approximately 7 years old, when his dad taught him a trick to make a coin magically enter a sealed box. Since then, he practiced his craft before becoming a professional performer 10 years ago. Lopez explained a friend of his asked him to perform during an event she was hosting and the engagement sparked his career to performing at libraries.

The magician encouraged everyone who was interested to get into magic, promoting the Summer Reading Program by suggesting they check out books on magic tricks from the library. He said the key to magic is to practice, practice, practice.

“Just keep practicing,” Lopez said. “Once you feel like you’ve practiced as much as you can, only then perform — and perform as often as possible.”